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DEWEY’S 24-HOUR READATHON: October 2017

This is it! It’s readathon time, and I can’t wait to get started! For the next 24 hours, I will be reading, cheering other bookworms on and posting updates here on the blog as well as on Twitter and Instagram.

Readathon Reading List:
My readathon reading list consists of 11 books this time! Yes, it’s a lot of books, but as you can see from the group picture, most of them are pretty thin. I made the mistake last year of choosing some “normal” length books. It didn’t work so well for me because I felt like I wasn’t going through books fast enough. I know that a readathon isn’t a competition against other bookworms, but it still felt like everyone else was on their 7th book when I was still reading my first book. So this year, I’ve chosen mostly thin books to read.

All but one of them are also rereads… Yes, I can hear all the gasps from horrified bookworms out there as I type this. I know that readathon is the ideal time to attack your tbr pile, but I don’t have a lot of thin books in my tbr pile – at least not ones that would fit into my autumn Halloween theme.

Yes, I thought it would be fun to combine this readathon with my yearly Halloween reading. I’m moving to another city and another job in the next couple of weeks, so I won’t have much time to read the books I normally would for Halloween. Therefore, I’m doing it all this weekend!

The books I’ve chosen for this Readathon can be divided into specific periods of my life:

I read Dennis Jürgensen’s children’s series about Freddy and all his monster friends when I was a child.

I read the ‘Dark Powers’ series when I was in my early teens.

I read ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’ by Seth Grahame-Smith when I was in my early 20’s.

The only book I haven’t read is ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ by Washington Irving, but I saw the movie with Johnny Depp when I was a teenager and I promised myself that I would read the book one day.

All of these books, therefore, mean something different to me. I’ll be reading them in the order I originally read/saw them, so I’ll be starting with Dennis Jürgensen’s books first and then move on to the ‘Dark Powers’ series before reading ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ and finishing off with ‘P&P and Zombies’.

Questions:What will you be reading for the next 24 hours and where can I find your updates?

Happy reading, everyone!

Saturday 2.30 pm

And we’re off! I’ll be reading ‘The trouble of the Missing Mummy’ (the book is in Danish, so I’ve translated the title myself) which is the first instalment in Dennis Jürgensen’s children’s book series. I’m looking forward to a fun trip down memory lane!

Saturday 4 pmI’ve now finished reading ‘The Trouble of the Missing Munny’. It was a fun little read with a bunch of fantastical characters.

Freddy gets kidnapped by a bunch of famous monsters because they need help to find their old friend, Mummy (yes, that’s his name).

Even though the plot is fun, you can tell that this is one of Jürgensen’s early books. The characters’ personalities aren’t as solid as they could be and the language is a bit off in some of the paragraphs. You can also tell that the book was written in the 80’s as Jürgensen uses words and expressions that are typical of the time. Young children today may not be able to completely see themselves as part of the story because of this. However, I enjoyed it – even though I wasn’t a kid in the 80’s, I’m still old enough to understand the setting in the books.

Oh, and I had completely forgotten that the books had illustrations! This just made me love the book – and the memories associated with it – that much more!

The next book is ‘Boards for Dracula’s coffin’. I can’t remember anything from this book at all, so it’ll be interesting to see what the little gang of monsters are up to in this book!

Saturday 6 pmI’ve now finished reading the second instalment in Dennis Jürgensen’s series.

Like the first book, this one has a lot of humour and a fun plot (the little gang travels to Majorca in the search for a special tree, which they need in order to build a new coffin for Dracula).

To be honest, I’m struggling a bit with the language. I haven’t read a book in Danish in a very long time, so everything just sounds less elegant than if it were written in English – but maybe that’s just me. Jürgensen does have some very beautiful lines in this little story, though.

The characters also seem to have stronger, more solid personalities in this book. Jürgensen is becoming better acquainted with his little monsters, which will hopefully lead to even more defined personalities in the following books.

Even though I’m clearly more aware of plot, characters and language now than when I read the books as a child, I’m still a fan of Jürgensen’s creativity and humour.

The next book in the series is ‘The Belch-dragons’ Secret’. Yes, this story features at least one burping dragon. Apparently, this particular type of dragon likes to eat popcorn…

Saturday 8 pmBook three is done! I went on a trip to China on the back of a burping dragon – what’s not to like?

The characters keep maturing and the plot is fun. I’m also impressed with 11-year-old Freddy’s ability to remember exactly how long the Great Wall of China is even though he was told the information a year ago… I’ve studied Chinese language, culture and history at university and I wouldn’t be able to do that…

I also managed to eat dinner in-between reading!

The next book in the series is ‘Blood Trace in Transylvania”. I quite like travelling the world without moving from my comfy reading nook…

Saturday 10 pm

I’ve just finished book 4 – I’m on a roll!

Another fun read from Jürgensen and to quote Céline Dion: It’s all coming back to me noooow! I can’t believe how much you can forget about a book – only to read a few lines and it all comes back to you.

I feel a bit like a kid again… Also, snack time!

Look at these grapes!! They are huuuge (blueberry is next to it)!

I’m also a bit pressed for time if I want to get through all my books, so I’ll jump right into the next one (and the last book in this series)! It’s called ‘Trouble with the bandages’.

Sunday 12.30 amI’m now done with the first series in this Readathon! Five short, but fun books that definitely took me down memory lane!

The last book also managed to take me to far corners of the world without having to move from my reading spot. The magic of books never disappoints!

I also had some time to chat with a couple of bookworms about readathon. It’s one of the great things about this event – you never feel like you’re reading alone. I even saw another bookworm reading a book by Dennis Jürgensen!

I’ll be reading the ‘Dark Powers’ series next, which will be interesting as I don’t really remember any of them. The series consists of four small stories, written by three different authors. They don’t need to be read in any particular order, so I’ll just pick one.

The first book will be ‘Kiss of the Vampire’ by J.B. Calchman. I’m not overly fond of teenage romance stories featuring vampires, but I’ll give it a go – again. I can’t remember if I liked it the first time I read it…

Sunday 4 am
Teenage vampire romance stories aren’t my thing – which would explain why I ended up spending about two hours looking at other bookworms’ progress on Twitter, Instagram and their blogs…

I did manage to finish the book, though.
I found the plot a bit confusing, and I’m left with a few questions, which weren’t answered in the story. I’m also not a fan of “Oh, we’ve just met, but we are destined to be together” stories. Maybe I’m just too old to read this book…

Another really odd thing is that the story apparently continues in another book, but that book does not exist?! At least not in Danish, even though it’s mentioned at the end of the book – as in: The story about Ella and Alex continues in ‘Vampyrens Dans’. Very strange… And maybe a bit sad that I’m more interested in the mystery about the missing book than the one I’ve just read.

As it’s early in the morning here, I’ve decided to take a little nap. See you all in a few hours!

Sunday 10 amI’m back! A little nap turned into a bit more than that. I must have needed it!

I’m on to ‘The Hounds of Winter’ by Louise Cooper. Again, I can’t remember anything about this book, so it’ll be interesting to see what it’s like.

Also, has everyone else had a nap?

Sunday 11.15 amBook 7 is done, and I’m not a fan of these teenage stories so far. The protagonist, Jansie, is driving me nuts. I find her to be extremely annoying – I just don’t like her.

Maybe I really am too old and cynical to enjoy these books…?

I’m considering whether to read the last two or cut my losses and move on to ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’. Hmm… To read the next or not?

Well, it’s another author, so I ought to give it a chance. I’m on to ‘The Lost Brides’ by Theresa Radcliffe.

Sunday 12.30 pm
Book 8 is done, and it wasn’t as bad as I had feared. I didn’t despise Catherine or any of the other characters. I’m still not a fan of the “let’s fall in love super quickly”, but the story does state that the main characters knew each other for some weeks before they realise that they love each other. It would have been nice to watch the two lovers fall in love slowly instead of being told that they do so over a few weeks, but I guess the book is too short for that.

I’m on to the last book in the series, which will also be the last one for this readathon. It’s called ‘Firespell’ and it’s by Louise Cooper – the same author as ‘The Hounds of Winter’. I hope the protagonist doesn’t drive me nuts…

Sunday 2 pm

Annd we’re done! The Dewey’s 24-hour Readathon October 2017 has come to an end.

I managed to finish the last book, and it actually wasn’t too bad. The protagonist did annoy me quite a lot at times, but overall the story was a sweet teenage romance. There were some cheesy moments, but the language and plot were okay. Not the worst book to end the readathon with.

Even though I didn’t manage to read all the books on my reading list, I had a lot of fun connecting with other bookworms. That’s much more important to me than getting through all of the books on my list. A readathon just wouldn’t be half as much fun if you didn’t talk to other bookworms during the event.

I hope everyone else had a wonderful readathon, and I can’t wait until the next one! See you in April 2018?

2 thoughts on “DEWEY’S 24-HOUR READATHON: October 2017”

How did it go? 🙂 I know what you mean! I had to finish some serious books that I had started, so although I read 800 pages (which is kind of a lot?) I only finished one and a half books 😀 but still! I’m glad I did, because now I don’t have to demolish such a huge chunk for November 🙂 they were for reviews that are coming up quite fast.

It went quite well – thanks for asking! 😊 I’m a super slow reader and I spend a lot of time talking to other participants, so even though I finished 9 books I only read about 900 pages! But I know that it’s more about the community feeling than the number of pages you read, so it’s been a fun readathon.

800 pages is a lot when you do it in 11 hours! Readathon is just such a great way of getting through your tbr pile or all the books you need to review. It’s also quite nice to have an excuse for reading all weekend 😄 Was this your first readathon?